For the first time in 15 years, I’m painting again, exhibiting my work at the Sin In My Heart show in Manchester. Once upon a time, in Amsterdam, I had one of my oil paintings up in a sex shop. But as our curator, Paul Darling remarked, nobody goes to a sex shop to look at the art! When word went out that the theme of the new exhibition was sex, death, sin and religion, I put myself forward as a contributor. How could I not?

Click on the image to see the uncensored version (PG – frontal nudity)

This is a detail from Prey, my second attempt at oil painting. In the full work, the model is stretched out in cruciform, and the photograph I worked from (by Jim French) appealed to my atheist nature. I was fascinated by the religious overtones and dramatic lighting, and the implied restraint of such physicality. There is drama in the male form which is rarely mined.

The piece was exhibited in Amsterdam’s Warmoesstraat, a bohemian stretch of galleries and bars between Centraal Station and The Dam Square.

One of the things which intrigued me about this painting was people’s reactions: people either loved it or hated it with nothing in between. Most people saw a face in the torso, found it striking and evocative or grotesque and offensive. It was good to provoke such extreme reactions. Art should always aspire to be something greater than the sum of it’s parts.

Oil paint is the most fantastic medium, versatile and rugged. The smell of linseed oil, the rolling of sleeves and the dirtying of hands are my idea of painting. Mistakes can be moved or wiped and the colours can be propelled around the canvas with as much passion or restraint as you like. Most artists I speak to are afraid to use them, but the rich, deep colours last for ever and the results speak for themselves.

Blue Man was my first attempt at painting in oils, and although it’s 13 years old I’m very proud of it. That and the fact that it sold before it was even completed. It’s a bold image which reflects how I felt at the time which was a bit frayed around the edges, and like early Hockney I based the painting on a photograph from an adult magazine. This particular image appealed to me enormously as it smashed the myth of men and their emotions. To see a big strong man in such a vulnerable pose was enigmatic and inspirational.